The present invention relates to drawer slides and, more particularly, to drawer slides having anti-rebound mechanisms for preventing a closed drawer from rebounding to a partially open position.
Drawer slides are routinely used to mount drawers within cabinets. The slides enable the drawer to be pulled out from the cabinet so that items in the drawer may be easily accessed. The slide typically includes two three quarter extension or three full extension rails slidably interfitted within one another, with one of the rails attached to the cabinet and one of the rails attached to the drawer. The slide includes a stop mechanism to stop the closing or opening movement of the rails and often also includes an anti-rebound mechanism to prevent the drawer from bouncing to a partially open position.
When included, the typical anti-rebound mechanism is located at the rear of the rail assembly, at the back of the cabinet, where maintenance and replacement are hindered. For example, one anti-rebound device for drawer slides is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,932,792 issued Jun. 12, 1990 to Baxter and includes an anti-rebound member attached to the rear end of the cabinet rail. As the drawer rail moves to the closed position, the anti-rebound member grasps the drawer rail to resist both closure and reopening. The positioning of the anti-rebound device at the rear portion of the rail assembly makes it difficult to perform maintenance on the anti-rebound mechanism; such positioning also necessitates using a cabinet rail that is of substantial length to spatially accommodate the long anti-rebound mechanism.